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Sun Valley Jazz and Music Fest to Feature Doo Wop and ‘Next Michael Buble’
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Tuesday, October 15, 2019
 

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Journey back to the days before iPods and cell phones, the days of pedal pushers and saddle shoes, when the Young Bucs debut at the Sun Valley Jazz & Music Festival this week at Sun Valley Resort.

The group from Coos Bay, Ore., will set their high-energy harmonies to songs like “Duke of Earl” and “Little Darlin’” in a free concert at 12:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18, at the Ketchum Town Square. And they’ll perform before audiences at the Sun Valley Jazz & Music Festival on Friday and Saturday.

Joining them among the new acts will be an 18-year-old who just graduated from high school and will sing a set of 20 Sinatra tunes. And there’ll be a salute to the 75th anniversary of D-Day with a patriotic set that will feature slides from the invasion of Normandy loaned to the festival by the National WWII Museum of New Orleans.

And locals can access it with After 5 discount passes.

Ketchum residents Ray and Linda Johnson, who have attended the music fest for 15 years,  can’t wait.

“The festival offers the best diversity of music—world-class music—you’ll find anywhere,” said Ray Johnson.

“It’s toe tapping music that lifts your soul,” added Linda Johnson.

This year’s festival is expected to attract music lovers from all 50 states and every Canadian province, as well as several foreign countries, including Norway and Australia, said Co-Director Carol Loehr. The festival will feature more than 40 bands and 200 musicians. And it will serve up a number of sets free and open to the public.

Musicians will present the music of familiar jazz figures, such as Louie Armstrong, Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald. And some sets will indulge audiences in familiar pieces by such iconic figures as country music legend Patsy Cline and even Kermit the Frog.

The festival kicks off with a Roaring 20s Party at 6 p.m. tonight—Tuesday, Oct. 15--at Sun Valley Resort’s Limelight Room and runs through the Grand Finale Jazz Party Style from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

The U.S. Coast Guard Dixie Band will follow the Roaring 20s Party with the first of three free Jazz in the Square concerts at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at Ketchum Town Square. Professor Cunningham & His Old School will perform the Thursday Jazz in the Square concert. And the Young Bucs will sing doo-wop from the 1950s and ‘60s jukebox on Friday.

The remainder of the festival can be accessed with Single Day, After-5 P.M. and All-Event passes, which go on sale at 1 p.m. today—Tuesday, Oct. 15--at the Sun Valley Inn.

Among the returnees are Jeff and Anne Barnhart and the Joe and Paul Midiri, along with Gator Nation, the High Street Party Band, the Cajun zydeco band Tom Rigney and Flambeau, the Yale Whiffenpoofs and Kings of Swing, a 17-piece dance band that has delighted crowds in Sun Valley with its Tribute to Glenn Miller since the beginning of the festival.

NEW ARTISTS:

  • The Young Bucs doo-wop band performs 1950s and ‘60s jukebox favorites from Dion, Elvis, Ricky Nelson, the Drifters and the Beach Boys.
  • Dawn Lambeth, a swinging pianist and vocalist, who pays tribute to romance with such songs as “The Man I Love.”
  • Banu Gibson, a New Orleans Magazine Jazz All Star, has appeared on “A Prairie Home Companion,” with the Boston Pops and even at the Playboy jazz festival.
  • Shaymus Hanlin, a soon-to-be-famous 18-year-old vocalist who got his start with Evolution, the Oregon Coast Lab Band that sang at the festival for many years until it disbanded. Now the lead vocalist for Bay City Swing, Hanlin will be featured in a big band tribute to Frank Sinatra, as well as other sets.

    “A donor left some money for us to encourage promising young students so we purchased him the entire Frank Sinatra book,” said Loehr. “He’ll be backed by 20 veteran performers. He could be the next Michael Buble. He’s charismatic, handsome—he’s got it all going for him.”

  • Holland & Coots Quintet, featuring world champion pianist Brian Holland and Grammy award-winning drummer Danny Coots, will take audiences on a musical journey through hot ragtime, stride, boogie-woogie and blues.
  • Professor Cunningham & His Old School, one of the most sought-after groups on the international swing scene, is an award-winning New York band that performs music in the mode of Fats Domino, Fats Waller and Sidney Bechet.

“They’re very popular in the Big Apple and here they’ll be doing a tribute to Bobby Darin, as well as the songs of Disney,” said Loehr.

FREE SETS:

The Hallelujah Chorus featuring Yve Evans, Patty Parsons and a very special guest will perform a free set open to the public at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Sun Valley Opera House.

The U.S. Coast Guard Dixie Band will play the first of three free Jazz in the Square concerts at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at Ketchum Town Square. Professor Cunningham & His Old School will perform the Thursday Jazz in the Square concert. And the Young Bucs will sing doo-wop from the 1950s and ‘60s jukebox on Friday.

The Yale Whiffenpoofs will perform at 3 p.m. Friday and 2 pm. Saturday at the Sun Valley Inn Duck pond, weather permitting. They will also perform in pop-up concerts around Ketchum on Friday, such as a 12:15 p.m. gig during the lunch hour at Perry’s.

The Midiri Brothers Septet will perform at the Presbyterian Church of the Big Wood at 11 a.m. Sunday.

SPECIAL SETS:

There’ll be a couple dozen special sets, including tributes to Count Basie, Peggy Lee and Fats Domino, a Salute to the 60s Veteran Tribute show by the High Street Party Band, a Tribute to Frank Sinatra, Professor Cunningham’s Swinging to the Music of Disney and the Carolyn Martin Swing Band’s Tribute to Patsy Cline.

One of the drummers was given the original chart for Bob Crosby and the Bob-Cats has been given the original music chart for that band and will perform it at 6:30 Wednesday.

There will also be gospel sets at 9 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. Sunday in the Sun Valley inn.

SECOND LINE PARADE

At the end of the Marching Band set in the Sun Valley Inn at 10:10 a.m. Saturday, the band will lead attendees out of the Sun Valley Inn to march around the Sun Valley Village as it plays “Bourbon Street Parade” and “When the Saints Go Marching in.”

It will pick up more passengers and more steam as it passes the Village Gate and Satchmo’s about 10:20 a.m.

“We did this at the beginning of the jazz festival a quarter century ago. Hopefully people will get dressed up for it and will really get into it,” said Loehr.

DANCE, DANCE, DANCE;

There’ll be balboa, fox trot, beginning swing, line dance, lindy hop and Charleston dance lessons offered to attendees each day at the River Run Lodge. They’ll culminate in the Dance Competition Preliminaries at 8 p.m. Friday at River Run, followed by the Final Dance Competition at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at the Sun Valley Opera House.

MORE INFORMATION:

Visit www.sunvalleyjazz.com. Or, call 1-877-478-5277.


 

 

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